Come Fly With Me: Sun n' Run 2019 recap....

 

So I don’t know if I said in my Gaspirilla recap that there had been a race in Tampa at their airport that I’ve been wanting to run since 2016 but other commitments have gotten in the way and this year was going to be MY YEAR….this was until I went to register at their expo and was told they had closed expo sign ups and that there were about thirty slots left online and well…since I wasn’t going to have access to Wi-Fi for a few hours I just figured it wasn’t meant to be (yet it kept coming up in Eblasts about races since but whatever) anyway all wasn’t lost when I saw in one of those said Eblasts that the small airport right here in Lakeland was doing a runway run as part of their air show (I don’t know how many years this has been going on but I did see someone with a 2018 shirt so….)






Packet pick up was Friday at the local running store and with the shirt not only being long sleeved but cotton that was a serious NO GO with how hot and humid things were sure going to be (I’ve hung the shirt in my closet to wear in a spirit jersey capacity) and while I pulled out multiple options I settled on my navy/red Fila Sport capris my 2017 Red White and Brew race top Bandana Bondi Band and as always my grey Fresh Foam Arishi’s




I arrived at the airport about an hour before the race was to begin and was lead into a terminal area where many runners were congregating…about fifteen minutes after getting there and taking the time to use the restroom facility and pin on my bib I heard a few muffled announcements and followed a group outside where I was met by a lineup of planes where people were taking pictures and I was lucky enough to have a fellow runner offer to take one of me which is nice as my selfie game isn’t strong.






Seven minutes later there was another announcement and the only one that was remotely audible saying that the arch that said FINISH was also the Start and to make our way over there. Now, much like Red White and Brew this event was mainly being put on by the local store and so there were no formal corals and also no pace signs…though I ended up next to an old teacher of mine at the start who is a runner so take that for what it’s worth.

About five minutes after the race was supposed to start there was another muffled megaphone announcement where all I could here was have fun followed by an air horn going off.

About six minutes into the run there were a line of planes that we began to run past this being a runway after all and people were stopping to take selfies and photos. I did a few run and click shots as I passed though the course was wide enough that even with the stopping it didn’t obstruct the course unlike when I did the Star Wars 5K last year and the course got congested with runners stopping to take pictures of the topiaries.







About 12 minutes in at about .90 of a mile the humidity caused my glasses to fog up and I was regretting having my running belt under my shirt cause I could of really used my cooling towel to wipe my glasses…the fogging and defogging happened a few times but in the end was more a mild annoyance then a total hindrance

Ten minutes approximately after this I noticed a bunch of people pausing and looking out into the distance and noticed a balloon being inflated and continued to pass a few more planes further back in a their hanger as well as this random beer truck



At thirty minutes in and 2.13 miles according to my Fitbit was the water stop and just like with RWB it was a tiny 4oz Dixie cup that was such a tease…

At that point I was wondering if I could possibly try for a PR despite the humidity however at the same time remember that balloon I saw being blown up before well now






As I crossed the finish line I was a bit confused…. As #1 there wasn’t anyone with medals though it was my assumption they’d have finishers medals like RWB not just age group ones (I was 24th place out of 30) also the fact my Fitbit only registered as 2.97 miles instead of 3.10 maybe its cause the official measurements were from the outer outline of the runway and I kept more toward the middle/inside….anyway despite all that officially my time was 42:46 which means it was a PR by a minute twenty seven seconds









All and All will I do this run again.... I think next year if it doesn't interfere with Passover or Star Wars (which I'm contemplating doing again) perhaps I'll give it a go as it was a fun run despite the slight disorganization and lack of medals